July 2018

A lot has happened in the last month!  Which also explains why I have not had any time to do a new post.  The week of July 4^th, I ended up going to my foot doctor because I’d been having this awful pain on the top of my right foot.  We spent the weekend of June 30^th in Idaho with my grandparents and when we were out shopping with my parents, it was almost unbearable to just walk.  Since we were going back to Idaho Falls for July 4^th, I knew we’d be walking around a lot and I just knew in my soul I had broken my foot.  I went to my foot doctor and sure enough, I had a stress fracture.  UGH!  He didn’t want to do an x-ray where I’m pregnant, so just from what he could feel on the top of my foot and the pain I was having, he put me in a boot.  That thing was so obnoxious!! I wore that stupid thing for 4 weeks like I was supposed to.  I am very thankful that everything is looking good on it now.  I’m finally able to go on a normal walk without hobbling around town. 

July was filled with hay cutting and fence fixing.  I sure love going to Dry Lake.  I had had enough of not being able to go to Drylake that I ended up wrapping my boot in a garbage bag and going up anyways.  It was so beautiful!! I had to be really careful during the first couple of weeks of July.  Our house didn’t have AC so it got hot, which made me swell.  Because I had to have the boot tightly wrapped on my leg, it would cause some extra swelling.  Again, thankfully everything worked out great!

Since July 24^th is a holiday here in Utah, and it was on a Tuesday, Devin and I decided to take Monday off of work and have an extra-long weekend.  It was so nice!  When we got married, we stayed at the Anniversary Inn in Salt Lake.  We bought a certificate that would expire in 5 years.  Back before I had the job that I have now, I worked a lot of weekends, so this certificate was only good on weekdays.  Well, long story short, here we are 5 years later, certificate about to expire, and we haven’t used it yet!  Now that I work weekdays, we took this “long weekend” as an opportunity to use it.  We left Sunday night and stayed in the Lighthouse Suite.  It was a cool room!  The bed was very uncomfortable, but oh well! 

The next weekend, Devin’s grandparents took us to a cabin for a night in the Uintas.  It’s always so gorgeous up there.  It was much, much greener then it was down here.  We ended up seeing 4 moose in total! 3 cows and a calf.  “Moose seeing” (as I like to call it) isn’t as fun in the Uintas as it is in Jackson Hole.  People don’t pull over to stop and take pictures, nor do the slow down!  I really didn’t even use my camera, which in a way was nice too.  It’s always nice to just enjoy the beauty and nature that God has given to us.  The cabins that we stayed in are always nice.  It had a big deck off the back so we could go out and just sit and enjoy the pretty view.  Boy was it pretty!  We saw a mama deer with 2 fawns cross the river.  We decided to go on a ride about 10-15 minutes later and ended up seeing the same mama and fawns cross the road a couple miles from the cabin.  Man they move quick!!  It was nice to be able to spend some time with D’s family.

August 2^nd my parents decided to take the 2 littles camping.  They just went up the Cub River road up Logan Canyon and parked their trailer up there.  Devin and I had to work on Thursday, so Friday after work we met my parents up at the camping spot and ate dinner with them.  We played horse shoes (I’m better at that game than I thought!), ate a delicious meal, and cooked s’mores!  Devin and I were feeding all my parents animals for them, so we just went home after rather than sleeping over.

Sunday, August 5^th, we had a nice little surprise!  My little brother has been doing summer sales in Kentucky since the beginning of June.  We were down eating lunch after church with Devin’s family when I heard my mom’s truck pull away from their church. (Mom and dad’s ward goes to the church just next to grandma and grandpas house.)  I texted her to see if she was okay because I found it kind of strange that she was leaving in the middle of sacrament meeting.  After a while I got a text from my dad saying that his car wasn’t broken and to be honest, I was so confused! But then the picture came in and it was a picture of mom and Kendal standing on the front porch!  Kendal wasn’t supposed to come home until August 20^th!  The little butt surprised us. Dad told mom that he had to go into work (which does happen sometimes) and when he was coming home he texted mom and said that he coasted down the canyon hill to the park and ride because his car died.  Turns out, he was at the airport picking up Kendal!   He wanted to spend the last month before his mission at home with family. *heart eyes* I was quite surprised that Devin knew about it and he didn’t tell me!  Devin and I have a really hard time keeping secrets from each other.  Not that that’s a bad thing, but it can make things like birthdays and Christmas a little difficult.  I started to freak out when I got the picture of K being home and Devin came running in the living room and was just smiling.  I could just tell that he knew and he knew that I knew that he knew.  (Say that 10 times fast!) He’s known since the MIDDLE OF JULY.  I honestly don’t even know how he kept that.  It’s been nice having K home.  Except I think I’m going to get attached to him being here that it will make it really difficult come September 5^th.  Oh well, guess we’ll see.

BABY UPDATE!

We had our latest baby appointment on August 9^th.  I had to take the dreaded glucose test.  What that means is they are just testing me to see if I have gestational diabetes.  They give you a drink that is full of a bunch of sugar and then exactly one hour later, they do blood work.  Whatever they are looking for in your blood, it gives you a number.  Depending on how high your number is, you may have to do the drink again, but then have your blood tested every 3 hours.  (You ‘fast’ during those hours.) If you test positive for gestational diabetes after that, then you become high risk and will be watched a little more carefully as it could really affect both you and your baby. 

Back to the drink—they gave me the drink at my July appointment.  It had been staring at me in the fridge for a month, almost like it was taunting me!  I was hoping for a little bit of a good flavor with the drink, but I was honestly expecting to gag.  A lot of people too say that it tastes like a flat orange soda.  To me it tasted more like an orange otter pop that had a burning aftertaste. (It’s an orange drink, in case you didn’t know.)  It honestly wasn’t bad at all!  I went to my doctor, had my blood drawn, listened to baby’s heartbeat, and moved on!  I ended up getting a call from my doctor.  Whenever the doctor’s office calls me, it scares me to death!  I did pass my glucose test, however I am anemic.  All that means is that my red blood cells are low which can be common.  They just want me to be on an iron supplement for the rest of my pregnancy.  

Since I have officially reached my third trimester, I get to go to the doctor more often!  I’m going to start going every two weeks.  Once we reach 36 weeks, I will go weekly until our little guy is here!  It’s getting so close!  When people ask how much longer I have, it feels shorter if I say 11 weeks versus 2 ½ months.  I don’t know why it sounds better/shorter to me. Haha! I have finally got most of his nursery put together.  It is honestly my favorite room in the house.  It has more decorations than any other room in the house.  I’m just waiting on a couple of decorations that I’ve ordered online to show up and then we will be all set to go!  My baby shower is in a week from Saturday and honestly I am just so excited.  What an exciting time in Devin and I’s life.  We are so incredibly blessed for the love and support from our family and friends.  We couldn’t be more grateful to have this little boy coming into our lives. 

20 week ultrasound

June 14, 2018 we got to have our big ultrasound! Normally this would have been where we found out the gender of our baby.  Since we were lucky enough to find out we're having a BOY at week 17, we weren't too surprised when the ultrasound tech announced that she to, agreed he was a boy.  Thank heavens! I have to be honest with you, I was a tiny bit nervous that we would go to this appointment and it would turn out that the first ultrasound we had was really just the umbilical cord. Not that having a girl is bad, obviously I would have been happy with whatever, however I have already been planning on a boy!  I've just felt the entire time that we were having a boy.  

I had originally made my appointment for 3:30.  Devin and I had planned on finding out the gender and then having a small gender reveal party directly after.  I put my appointment later in the afternoon so I wouldn't have to go back to work.  Since we found out the gender 3 weeks earlier, I felt that the day was going really slow.  It probably would have been even longer if we didn't know the gender, but oh well haha.  

When we got checked in and the ultrasound tech called us back, she put the gel on my tummy.  For some reason, I always thought that the gel would be super cold!  I always forget and I am always pleasantly surprised when the gel is warm.  She asked us if we wanted to find out the gender -- with all these gender reveals going on, she didn't want to ruin for us.  We told her we already knew and would like a confirmation.  First thing she says when she put the wand on my tummy was "oh yeah, you definitely have a boy!" Next we got to listen to the heart.  I feel like they never let you listen for a long time! It's always so short! It is just so amazing to me the things that you can see on an ultrasound.  She made sure his heart chambers were correct and that they crossed in the right pattern.  She checked his brain, his kidneys and his stomach.  They look so small!  She went back to get the profile picture of him.  I have wanted one of those so bad!! I made the comment to her of, "do people just want to just sit an stare at their babies?" She said yes, and she just let us sit and watch him in the 2D form.  The coolest thing happened, we watch him bring his hand up to his mouth and start to suck on his thumb, but then he did the biggest yawn you've ever seen!  It was just so amazing to me that we just watched our little boy yawn! His little tongue poked out a little and it was all I could do to just not start crying.  It was so cool.  The ultrasound tech even said that he was one of the cutest babies to just sit and watch like that.  The 3D pictures are always a little weird to me.  They just look so deformed!  She gave us a couple of those 3D photos. Again, it's just so weird to be able to see our babies face! I think he has a little piggy-like nose.  I just cant even believe the technology that we have these days.  

After the ultrasound appointment, we were supposed to meet with my doctor.  We got called back and my nurse asked if we wanted to wait 45 minutes because she got called back to delivery a baby.  We decided that as long as baby was ok, we'd be fine just making our four week appointment and going then. 

After the appointment, we went to the new store that opened that day, Logan Outlet.  If you have not been to that store, you need to go!  They are a discount grocery store and a manufacturer's outlet.  A lot of the food is either getting ready to expire or have just barely expired.  Since they have other things other than food, they had a huge selection of baby clothes!  Devin bought 3 little outfits for so, so cheap!! They are so adorable!! 

We are so grateful for the technology that we have and even more grateful that our little guy is so healthy!

Here are pictures from the anatomy scan:

June 4- June 10

Y’all—I am tired! To be honest with you, I really don’t even know how I made it through last week.  My mom and dad left for Mexico, leaving Jason and Lindsie home alone.  I had cookies that I had to make, (and remake because I’m a ding dong and messed them up! Ugh.) hospital visits, work and life like normal too. I think I took a two hour nap on Saturday AND Sunday.  Let me tell you though, it was magical. 

Monday was a regular day.  Almost.  We went and had dinner for my dad’s birthday. (48—holla!) and hung out with them since Kendal would be going to KY for the summer.  I am totally blaming my pregnancy for how much I cried Monday night.  Devin will tell you that it’s just who I am.  But it can’t all be me…right? Pregnancy has to be an explanation too…RIGHT?  I’m going with it.  I bawled allllllllllll night long.  I constantly have these conversations in my head that go something like: “He’ll be ok, right? YES YOU DING DONG.  HE IS FREAKING 18 YEARS OLD.  Yes, I understand that…but he’s really not old enough to be doing this on his own.. HE IS 18. HE IS TECHNICALLY AN ADULT.  So? He’s still my baby brother.  HE IS FINE. HE WILL BE ABLE TO TAKE CARE OF HIMSELF.  But he’s so tender hearted! He’ll get picked on! HE’S NOT GOING TO BE PICKED ON. HE’S OVER 6 FT TALL. HE’LL BE FINE YOU BIG BABY”. ---that’s the literal conversation I had with myself until like 11:30 that night. Poor D just looks at me and says “you’re going to make me and our children miserable, aren’t you?” haha…its not like I’m trying to be overprotective and obnoxious. It’s just who I am!   

Tuesday morning we get a phone call that Dev’s brother, Derik, is in the hospital and is going to have his appendix removed.  Poor kid.  Been there, done that!  Devin didn’t know when he’d be going into surgery, so we left pretty early that morning.  I don’t even think I brushed my hair until I got to work. But hey, at least it got brushed!  We were supposed to be leaving on Friday morning to go to Yellowstone, but with Derik’s surgery, obviously that didn’t happen.  He ended up having his gallbladder AND appendix removed.  His appendix was swollen and he had a ½ inch stone in his gallbladder.  Poor kid has been struggling with his gallbladder for a few years now.  Hopefully he continues to heal quickly!

Wednesday doesn’t seem all that stressful, but it kind of was!  My cute neighbor hired me to make sugar cookies for her sister’s wedding that was that Saturday.  I started on Monday night and I knew it would take me a couple nights to get them frosted/decorated.  Well Tuesday night I was so frazzled that long story short, I messed up like 20 of my cookies! GRR! I was so frustrated! Let me tell you, that was a huge lesson on patience.  Had I just waited for Devin to help me move the table instead of dragging it by myself and making my cookies look like an old wrinkly forehead, I wouldn’t have had to MAKE A WHOLE NEW BATCH OF COOKIES AND REFROST THEM.  To say I was upset at myself was an understatement.  I always tell Devin that EVERYTHING happens for a reason!  When I realized I had ruined my cookies, I was trying so hard to figure out why that happened for a reason. Well, it turns out that not going to Yellowstone made it so I had another day to let my cookies dry completely.  Making it possible for me to have them done in time like I promised!

Thursday again doesn’t seem that bad.  But I was up until 1130 putting the finishing touches on those sugar cookies to make sure they’d be dry in time to take them over on Friday.  Being pregnant and bending over to frost cookies for 4 hours, is a little bit exhausting.  Thankfully I have the best husband in the entire freaking universe that helped me out with house work and yard work AND still managed to do his responsibilities up at Dry Lake and around the barn.  I sure love him.

Friday night I took those cookies over to my neighbor and finally got to relax a little bit.  My family has had Friday night pizza night for as long as I can remember.  Since mom and dad were in Mexico, D didn’t want J and L to go without pizza, so he bought them Papa Murphy’s!  DELICIOUS!  I love their pizza.  At this stage in my pregnancy though, I think I’d love any pizza.. Devin left work a little early to go finish cutting some hay.  Since he left work early, and I didn’t have cookies to do, it was nice to be home at the same time and enjoy time with him.  Also – I mailed Kendal his first package haha!  He didn’t even make it a week… I had some extra cookies so I mailed them to KY for him to enjoy, along with a mini pool game, water balloons, and water balls.  Hopefully he can find some time to hang out at a pool!

On a side note—Devin and Lindsie both felt the baby kick today.  I’ve never seen someone as weirded out as Lindsie was.  It was so cute haha.  Growing up, us older kids always would feel mom’s tummy when she was pregnant, but where Lindsie was the last one, she never really got that opportunity.  The look on her face was priceless!

Saturday Devin did some work down at the barn.  I didn’t get to go grocery shopping on Friday so I went Saturday morning.  NEVER AGAIN.  What a nightmare.  Why is it that every store in the universe thinks that its ok to have FOUR registers open on the busiest day of the week?!  I do not understand it.  I wanted to spend a little bit more time with Jason and Lindsie, so do you know what we did?  We made cookies! Haha.  Obviously making 72 sugar cookies earlier this week wasn’t enough, so I thought we should make some more.  Gratefully, these were just good ol’ fashioned chocolate chip cookies. 

Sunday was a good day.  As mentioned above, I took a nap and it was so delightful.  I think my body finally caught up to me.  I don’t do well on little sleep.. so going to bed at almost 1130 every night and then waking up for work was a little rough on me.  But I made it!  J and L came and had Sunday dinner with us and we enjoyed it.  

 My cute butter dish that mom and dad brought home from Mexico!  Kendal and I :) 

 Kendal and I.  Making chocolate chip cookies

Mothers Day -- Kendal Mission Call

Today has been an eventful day.  Technically its my "first" Mother's Day.  I've never really enjoyed this holiday.  I've always thought that it's pointless.  I shouldn't need a designated day to tell my mom that I love her.  Another reason that I was pretty bitter is because I wasn't a mom yet.  Now that we are expecting our first child, I'm a little bit more excited.. but I still feel like there shouldn't be a designated day.  It should just be a given. 

We enjoyed our day by attending church.  The seniors in our ward gave their graduation talks today.  These kids grow up so gosh dang fast!  I stayed in my ward during Sunday School and then I left to attend sacrament with my family in my home ward.  Kendal was giving a talk on mothers, and where he won't be her for much longer, I wanted to hear him speak.  He did a nice job!  He's such a funny kid.  After I attended church, I hurried home so that we could eat lunch with D's family.  We had hamburgers, frog eyed salad and baked beans.  My mom in law was so sweet and bought me a new decoration that I can hang outside.  It's so gosh darn cute!  After we hung out with them, we headed on down to my families house for dinner.

Kendal turned in his mission papers a few weeks back.  We've been patiently waiting for a couple of weeks for his call to come.  It hasn't been easy!  Poor kid has been so patient. Yesterday he checked the mail and it was finally here!  We had his friends over and my grandma Bonnie and cousin Kobe came down from Idaho.  We did a Facebook live and Instagram live post so that other family members could see it.  He got called to the North Carolina Raleigh Mission! --- SPANISH SPEAKING!!  He was so excited.  He wanted to speak Spanish so bad.  I don't blame him.  He's such a good kid.  

Link to video is here. 

When we got home from being with my family I had a little bit of a crying session.  I blame it on the baby (that's my excuse for a lot of things right now ;) but Dev says its just who I am.  I feel like everything is changing so fast.  I don't feel prepared for everything that is about to happen.  I feel like Kendal, Jason and Lindsie are just growing up so fast and it breaks my heart. I told D that so much is going to change in the next 5 years.  Kendal will leave on his mission, we're going to have a baby, K will come home from his mission, Jason will graduate, J will go on a mission, Lindsie will graduate and there's even a SLIGHT chance that L could be married too!  Sean and Allie will hopefully have a kid and who knows, we may even lose someone in there too.  I feel like my life as been pretty steady and constant.  We do the same thing, every day, no changes.  But then it was like 2018 came and its like my life just took off.  I'm very emotional about it.. (that's the part I'm blaming on pregnancy!) Hopefully I will be able to get my act together and just have faith that everything is going to be okay.  I hope that everyone had a great Mother's Day.  I am so grateful for my mom and for the things that she has done for me.  I feel like I'm quite 'prepared' to be a mom, and I owe it to her. (And all the freaking children she had! Haha ;) I'm grateful for my mom in law and for the role that she played in raising my amazing husband.  I hope that all the women in my life were able to enjoy their day! 

*** I'll get pictures uploaded tomorrow ***

First Trimester!

February 16^th:  Oh my gosh.  I AM PREGNANT!  I have been feeling extremely tired, peeing every half hour, bloated beyond belief and had a gut feeling.  I just didn’t want to trust myself!  When I took the first test—I was still half asleep and I was as blind as a bat.  When I saw the second line come up on the pregnancy test, I literally almost fainted!  I couldn’t believe it.  Because I didn’t have my eyeballs in, I ran into the bedroom and yelled, “Devin! Wake up!”  I ran over to him and I showed him the pregnancy test.  He looks at me and says, “Wait, you’re pregnant?”  I had to go to him to make sure that there really were two lines! I just couldn’t believe myself.  He told me after everything had happened, that he thought he had slept through the alarm.  He saw the 17 as the minutes, and thought it said 7:17 AM.   Since I still doubt myself, I went to Smith’s before work and bought a two pack.  I took both of those when I got to work and they were very positive.  I was just so giddy!!

Devin and I had decided that we were going to tell our parents.  I know that it’s super early, but we wanted them to enjoy this moment with us too.  A couple of months ago, I pinky promised my dad that I would tell him before my mom.  I take my pinky promises very seriously.  I had asked my dad if he was able to talk and he said that he was at lunch.  I sent him a picture of one of my tests and he says, “Yay! Does mom know?” I told him..no.  He said that I probably ought to tell her, or he could do it for me if I’d like.  I knew she was going to kill me for even telling dad before her, so I decided it would probably be best if I told her.  I called her and I told her and she says, “Can we tell dad?”  I had to break the news to her that he already knew.  I thought she was going to reach through the phone and strangle me! Haha.  I didn’t want any of my siblings to know quite yet, but when I was about to tell my mom, I was telling her to not yell, not say anything and she says “are you pregnant?” and Lindsie was standing right there. So now she knows.  Then I decided to tell Allie so that both of them would know. 

Devin and I went grocery shopping after work.  I decided that I would like pizza for dinner and we called his parents to see if they’d like any.  LaDawn told us that they too were planning on picking up pizza so we asked if we could bum off their oven.  Devin wanted to just call his dad grandpa when he walked in the door.  So when Jedd walked in from work, Devin says “Hey, Grandpa!”  Both Jedd and LaDawn kind of looked shocked.  Almost like they didn’t believe us!  Derik walked in and when D called him Uncle Derik he totally thought that he was joking.   He was just like, “oh yeah, very funny!”  

Saturday (17^th) I took another pee test.  Because, why not?  Still positive!  So needless to say, I am a terrible secret keeper.  I ended up telling my brothers that Sunday (18^th) and then my grandma too.  The only reason that I told my grandma, is because she lives with my parents.  I didn’t want her to find out she was the only one that didn’t know about it in the house. 

The thing that I regret the most is: taking a test in the morning, on a Friday.  Work was a drag!! Luckily for me, our office closes at 3:30 PM on Fridays.  

February 19^th:  I made my first appointment!! I was trying to decide between two different OBGYNs—Dr. Anne Blackett or Dr. Kimberly McCulloch.  I tried calling Dr. Blacketts office first, but they were closed for the holiday.  I was kind of in the back of my head wanting to go to Dr. McCulloch, so I was a little bit relieved when I called Dr. McCulloch’s office and they answered.  My very first appointment is scheduled for April 5^th at 4:00 PM!  I put it at the end of the day so that I could just go home afterwards.  

March 8^th: I’ve been feeling pretty decent the last couple of days.  Considering that I have been nauseous.  I hit 6 weeks.  At this point I don’t know if I am really 6 weeks or if I am a week or two behind.  I just know that it’s been 6 weeks since the first day of my last period.  I’ve tried to get myself to work out, but I am just so gosh dangit tired.  I’m grateful that the time change is Sunday and that it’s getting warmer.  I can stand to put on thermals/sweats and go on a walk with Aggie.  So that’s been helping.  Yesterday I wasn’t hungry at all.  I drank my shake and ate a hardboiled egg for breakfast, salad for lunch, and I drank some chicken broth for dinner.  Sometimes the thought of food just makes me nauseous.  

Today I bought Peanut’s first books!! I was out shopping with Ashlee (coworker) for my other coworker, Amanda’s, baby shower.  I saw these two books and they were $5.00 each at Kohl’s.  The books that I bought are Sleep Tight, Sleepy Bears and Goodnight Little One.  Both of these books are written by Margaret Wise Brown.  I am so excited!  Devin and I really don’t want our kids to have to be entertained by technology from the time that they exit the womb, so I really want to collect books for them.  I am a firm believer that “old school” isn’t always bad.  

March 12^th:  I feel so sick.  This weekend has not been kind to me.  Today makes 7 weeks—peanut is the size of a raspberry.  I have been pretty nauseous off and on, and now I feel like I have the flu.  I’m pretty sure I have a fever.  I knew coming in that being pregnant would be hard, but having the flu/fever on top of it, just isn’t working.  Peppermint oil is still saving my life at this point in time.  I just stick a little bit on the tip of my nose and voila! I can’t eat much of anything.  Especially broccoli!  I’m like seriously dry heaving right now even just thinking about it.  Almost 3 weeks until my first appointment!  I talked with my mom, its normal to feel like I feel.  I feel like if I say anything out loud, I’ll jinx myself.  I know God doesn’t work that way.  I’m afraid of there being no heartbeat.  That’s my biggest fear.  I just so badly want this baby to be healthy.  I’ve been saying many, many silent prayers.  I’m grateful for the peace that they bring to me.

March 14^th:  I have been cramping the last few days and it’s caused me to worry.  I don’t feel like I should be cramping enough that it wakes me up in the middle of the night.  I’ve been trying all freaking morning to get in with my doctor.  Finally they were able to get me in at 2:30.  When we got there, I had to give the front desk some information and then they took me back to have my first ultrasound!! The tech that I worked with was so sweet! She was just the nicest thing in the world.  First thing that she found was the baby!  Oh my gosh my heart just melted right there.  You could see the little heart beat fluttering on the screen and it was just so surreal!  Devin had the biggest smile on his face!  Little peanut’s heart rate was 157. Gratefully, we only saw one too.  That was a huge relief.  She said that I am measuring right on schedule at 7 weeks and that everything looked good so far!  She did find a cyst on my ovary that ovulated.  She said it should disappear but that it can definitely cause pain and be uncomfortable.  She printed us off a picture of our cute little peanut and it was such a relief to know everything is ok!  My next appointment is still scheduled for April 5^th. 

March 16^th: Today Devin’s cousin, Kira, got married.  We drove down to the Payson Temple and it was a beautiful day!  I bought these things called “sea bands” and they’re an acupuncture type of band that you wear and it sits on a pressure point.  Let me tell you something!  That thing works.  I almost threw up in the sealing room of the temple.  Do you know how bad that would have been?!  I just kind of pushed the little knob deeper in the pressure point and BAM! Took the nausea away instantly.  It was beautiful.  

March 18^th:  We told the rest of our grandparents today!  The only people we had left to tell was Grandma Shirley and grandma and grandpa Jackson.  We went over to Grandma Shirley’s and showed her a picture.  Her reaction was so cute!  She had to sit down.  She was so excited.  I called my grandma when we got down to my parent’s house and asked her what she was doing around Halloween.  She was so confused. Lol! I told her she needed to make sure her schedule was free around then so that she could come and hold our baby!  Devin says her response was his favorite.  “Holy awesome!” haha!  Next I called grandpa (he’s in Boise working right now) and he was excited too! It’s nice to know that our grandparents know.  We’ll probably tell the rest of our family after the appointment in April.   

March 25^th:  Happy Birthday, Devin!  Yesterday we went down to Ogden to see if we could find anything at Babies R Us.  Since they’re closing all their stores, they were having a big liquidation sale.  When we got there, there was like nothing.  It was kind of a waste of a trip. We were able to salvage the trip by buying a couple of gifts for Devin’s birthday today.  We ate at El Paisa grill in Ogden.  OMG. My pregnant butt was in heaven!! That was the first time I have eaten street tacos that taste like I am back at my favorite little spot in Juraquilla.  It was a nice day to spend with Devin, just the two of us.  I felt so bad.  His birthday is today and I have felt like garbage.  I dry heave all day long.  I’m achy, nauseous, I just feel like garbage.  I feel awful.  I wrote in Dev’s card like literally while I was lying in bed.  I put it on his pillow while he was brushing his teeth!  I hope that I can feel a little bit better, and be able to make it up to him.  

March 26^th:  I have not felt good all freaking day.  I am miserable!! I had lunch bunch today at work, so I brought tostadas for about 8 or 9 of us to eat for lunch.  While I was cooking, I wasn’t feeling that fantastic, but I figured it was just pregnancy symptoms.  (I made sure that I didn’t have a fever or anything while cooking.) I think I’ve thrown up 4 times.  After I ate, I felt pretty good.  Until about 2:45.  I was so cold!! Ashlee felt my forehead and said I was hot, so I assumed I had a fever.  My whole body just ached.  I decided to leave at 3:00 and go home and try and sleep.  I took some Tylenol and took a nap.   I took the rest of the food I cooked over to my parents and we had tostadas for dinner.  I’m feeling much better, just glad to know I’m not so sick from being pregnant.  

March 30^th:  Ok, the funniest thing just happened.  I was talking to Ysabel’s daughters Janelle and Nohelly in Spanish.  I asked Ysabel if they knew if I was pregnant and she said no.  I told them that I have a baby in my tummy and that I’m pregnant.  Nohelly looks me dead in the eye and says “Why aren’t you fat?!” hahaha I needed that laugh today.  It was so cute and so funny and to be honest with you I’m just glad that she didn’t call me fat.  I explained to her that the baby was really small and that as the baby grows, my tummy will grow with it.  She looks at me again and is like “Uh huh.  You’re supposed to be fat.”  I couldn’t help but laugh!  It was so funny!  From the mouth of babes! 

March 31^st: I wrote another blog post about things that happened this weekend – since it was General Conference/Easter, I wanted to have its own separate blog.  You can find it here.  I am attaching the link here, because I think it will cut this little story short. Haha.  As mentioned in the other blog post, Devin and I worked really hard in the yard today.  When Devin was at priesthood session, I went and spent some time down at my parent’s house.  While I was down there, I got super nauseous.  Like…really bad.  My left leg was kind of tingly, and my left kidney felt like someone was stabbing it with a knife.  Since this happened towards the end of the meeting, I just took some cranberry pills from my mom and then went and met Devin.  His family tradition is to go to Wendy’s and get food/frosty’s.  This time, since it was the final four for college basketball, they bought Fredrico’s Pizza.  I couldn’t even eat it, which is so sad because it’s my absolute favorite.  I went and I threw up in their bathroom and then I sat in there and cried.  I was in so much pain.  Devin wanted to take me to the ER right then and there, but I convinced him to wait a little bit.  I took a lot of ibuprofen in high school because of my knees, so I know that my kidneys aren’t the best kidneys in the world.  I figured it would pass, and I’d be just fine.  I stretched out on the couch and fell asleep.  When I woke up, the pain was gone.  I was still nauseous though.  Devin took me home and I brushed my teeth and I tried to go back to bed.  The sharp, stabbing pain came back.  I drank some lemon water (I think I’ve posted the recipe before) and I rubbed some lemon oil on my left side and said a prayer! I was able to fall asleep and convince Devin that if the pain was back in the morning, I wouldn’t fight him.  I’d let him take me to Instacare. (Lot’s cheaper than ER!)  I haven’t had any pain since!!

My sickness is still there, but it’s not really morning sickness.  I call it bedtime sickness.  Every time I lay in bed at night, I get nauseous and could throw up.  I try to fall asleep as fast as possible so it will pass.  Usually that helps.  

April 5^th:  TODAY IS BABY APPOINTMENT DAY!!! I am literally COUNTING DOWN the minutes until I leave to go get D.  22 minutes from this exact moment.  I am just filled with so many different emotions.  I’m sweating from excitement.  I’m nervous as heck.  I just worry so much about if the baby is ok, and if it’s developing how it should be.  It just stresses me the heck out.  I’m getting more and more nervous though as time approaches.  I pray and pray and pray that everything will be ok! Well, I’ve got a couple of minutes before I got to go get Devin, so hopefully the next post is POSITIVE!  

Just got back from my appointment!! OMG.  Little peanut is so cute! We met with Dr. McCulloch and I think she’s nice.  She talked to us for probably 10 minutes and then we went and did an ultrasound!  We heard the heart beat!  It was such an exciting moment to hear the little heart thumping instead of just seeing it on the screen.  I started to cry!  I asked her if she gets people in there who cry a lot, she said yes, but she likes happy tears!  It was beating at 185 bpm.  I can’t believe how much it has changed in the last 3 weeks!  I will be seen every 4 weeks until week 30, then I’ll go every 2 weeks until week 36, to which I will go weekly until baby is born!! This is getting so real! I think it will become a lot more real once I can feel the baby kicking.  I think our baby looks like a monkey right now.  It’s so neat though that you can now see arm and leg buds.  Right now our due date is for October 29-31.  (29^th due to my period, and 31^st by size of baby.)  My next appointment is on May 3^rd at 2:45.  I did get my blood tests back already, they were posted very quickly on the health website that they use.  From what I can tell, everything looks good!! 

April 9^th:  This past weekend was rough.  Physically and emotionally. Friday night, Devin and I were just sitting around, watching TV.  I got up to go to the bathroom, and when I was wiping, there was a lot of blood.  You can only imagine the panic that swept through my body.  Devin was so calm (as usual) during this little nightmare I had.  It wasn’t a ton of bleeding, but it was more than just “spotting”.  I texted a really good friend of mine, (who also happens to be pregnant!) and she called and talked to me for a little bit and helped calm me down.  It’s nice to be able to have someone to talk to, who is going through the same thing that you are.  I called the on call doctor, who asked me some questions and we both determined it wasn’t bad enough that I needed to go to the ER right away.  If I started to bleed again, he did want me to go in.  Jedd came over and helped Devin give me a special blessing since my dad was in Provo for a volleyball tournament.  What a blessing it is to be able to receive those! 

Saturday I just kind of relaxed.  I tried not to do too much and just kind of laid low.  I called the office and scheduled another ultrasound for Monday, per the on call doctor.  Sunday was just a relaxing day and again, kept it low key.

Today Devin and I went in for another ultrasound.  The ultrasound tech was so nice!! He made sure that little peanut was looking good and everything with me was ok too.  He said that he thinks it was the cyst that I had that popped and caused me to bleed a little bit.  We saw the heartbeat again, which was such a huge relief!  172 BPM.  He gave us some of those cool 3D ultrasounds, and peanut definitely looks like an alien. Haha!  After looking at the ultrasound, I think we’re having a boy!  Devin still thinks a girl – but I think he’s saying that just so he doesn’t get his hopes high.  I feel much better knowing that baby is ok.  I know that it’s probably going to cost me peanuts kidney to pay for all of this…but we’re trying! ;)

April 19^th:  Not a whole lot has been going on lately.  I’ve been feeling a little bit better.  Some days are still better than others, but I’ve been pretty good so far!  Tomorrow my mom and I are going to go to Woods Cross and buy our first piece of furniture for the nursery!! I found a really good rocker/glider on KSL for $80.00.  What a steal!  The person on KSL said that it regularly retails for $300.00.  They’re being very kind and holding it for me until tomorrow.   I keep telling myself to just “wait until your next appointment, make sure everything’s ok..” but I’m starting to realize that I need to just enjoy this moment.  So I’m going to start buying things for the nursery.  Whatever happens with the baby, happens.  

May 4^th:  Happy Star Wars Day!! I went to my appointment yesterday and everything looked great!  We didn’t get to see baby, but we heard its little heart beat thumping away.  171 BPM.  Doctor said that everything with me looked good.  My blood pressure and my weight all looked good. I am officially in the second trimester and I am definitely starting to feel alive again! Haha.  I have to be honest, I really wasn’t that sick in the first trimester.  I was just exhausted.  I really only got nauseous towards the end of it when I would take my prenatal vitamin.  But other than a few sick days here and there, I’ve been really blessed!  I had the wonderful opportunity of having a Pap smear done.  That was a party.  My next appointment is in 4 weeks, and then I’ll go in 2 weeks after that for my anatomy scan.    In my opinion, I think they should just do my anatomy scan at my 18 week mark.  I feel like the second appointment is unnecessary and just another way to get more money.  But oh well, I just do as I’m told.  

I’ve announced it to the world now so no need to make the blog posts longer than they need to be.  I’m so grateful for the place that D and I are in and hope that everyone enjoys Cinco de Mayo tomorrow… and May the 4^th be with you! ;)